hymn · Greek

Hymn to Chthonic Hermes

Hermes · Persephone · Dionysus · Aphrodite

Hermes, I call, whom fate decrees to dwell near to Kokytos, the famed stream of Haides, and in necessity's dread path, whose bourn to none that reach it ever permits return. O Bakkheios Hermes, progeny divine of Dionysos, parent of the vine, and of celestial Aphrodite, Paphian queen, dark-eyelashed Goddess, of a lovely mien: who constant wanderest through the sacred seats where Haides' dread empress, Persephone, retreats; to wretched souls the leader of the way, when fate decrees, to regions void of day. Thine is the wand which causes sleep to fly, or lulls to slumberous rest the weary eye; for Persephone, through Tartaros dark and wide, gave thee for ever flowing souls to guide. Come, blessed power, the sacrifice attend, and grant thy mystics' works a happy end.

Commentarius · Commentary

The same god as in the twenty-eighth hymn (orphic-hermes-001), but chthonic, and therefore given a hymn of his own with a different fumigation: storax instead of frankincense. The collection separates the celestial and the chthonic face of one deity into different addresses — as the Romans separated the household Lares from those of the road (lares-003).

And the parentage here is different, and unheard of: Διωνύσοιο γένεθλον καὶ Παφίης κούρης, ἑλικοβλεφάρου Ἀφροδίτης — offspring of Dionysus and of Aphrodite. Not of Zeus and Maia. In the received myth Hermes and Aphrodite produce Hermaphroditus; here the relation is inverted and Hermes becomes their son. Orphic texts do this constantly: they do not argue with ordinary mythology, they present another one.

Ἀνυπόστροφον οἶμον ἀνάγκης — the path of necessity from which there is no turning back. The road along which souls are led is called one-way before it is said where it leads.

Εὐιέρῳ ῥάβδῳ θέλγων … καὶ πάλιν ὑπνώοντας ἐγείρεις — charming all with the holy wand … and again you wake the sleepers. The wand does both, and this is the Homeric attribute of Hermes, surviving untouched inside a deity otherwise unrecognisable.

Fons · Source

AuthorAnonymous (Orphic corpus)

WorkOrphic Hymns

Section57

PeriodHellenistic to Roman imperial (3rd c. BC – 2nd c. AD)

OccasionOrphic hymn to Chthonian Hermes with fumigation of storax — invocation of the psychopomp who leads souls to Hades

English translationThomas Taylor, 1792

Classificatio · Taxonomy

CultureGreek

Formhymn

DeitiesHermes, Persephone, Dionysus, Aphrodite

FunctionsInvocation · Petition

SpherePersonal